Dear immuno bionet readers,
As my brain and thinking digests more and more the results with
Vitamin C reported by Dr. Mark Levine in the PNAS of 12/10/97, I realize
more and more how significant they are.
First, the results he obtained with neutrophils, which are immune
cells in the blood, should equally apply to macrophages, which are the
immune cells in tissues.
Second, the absorbing of Vitamin C by the neutrophils and perhaps
discharge of some products may be recognized by the immune system and be
telling it where an attack is taking place. Obviously, it would also
tell it where it is not taking place. My experience suggests that
Vitamin C circulating in plasma enables a signalling scheme for the
immune system. What purpose would that have? If our livers could
make Vitamin C, it would tell the liver to make more. The liver,
because of lacking some enzymes, can't make it but the vestigial
signal may still be being sent.
How do we make use of this? To keep the immune system on alert
we should take Vitamin C to maintain some minimum level throughout
the day. When an attack on the immune system occurs, we should boost
our intake. In particular, when we know an attack is going to take
place, such as a vaccination, we should boost the intake ahead of
time.
What benefits could we expect? We would get a quicker response
to an attack and perhaps avoid an erroneous autoimmune response.
Further investigation may show how to use this to detect and
recognize problems, and boost Vitamin C intake in response. All this
is really just emulating what presumably takes place in animals that
can make their own Vitamin C.
Regards, Ralph L. Samson